of the Fishery Board for Scotland. 



Ixv 



which 3991 cwts. were herrings, the remainder consisting principally 

 of white fishes, as cod, haddock, etc. Observations were made bv 

 each observer as to the quantity and sizes of the herrings and other 

 fishes caught, and very particularly as to the n amber, proportion, and 

 sizes of those thrown overboard and destroyed ; as to the absence or 

 presence of spawning herrings, herring spawn, etc. Samples of 

 herrings and herring-stomachs were sent to the Marine Laboratory for 

 subsequent examination, and observations were made on the tempera- 

 ture and salinity of the water at the place of fishing. 



The observations of the " Goldseeker " were designed partly for the 

 same purpose, to determine the number, proportion, and sizes of 

 immature herrings and immature white fishes destroyed by the herring- 

 trawl net ; the proportion, sizes, and condition of the herrings taken 

 to market ; the presence of mature or actually spawning herrings, or of 

 herring spawn in the net or on the grounds worked over ; the nature 

 of the food, etc. Collections were made of the plankton or floating 

 organisms upon which the herrings mainly subsist, and temperature 

 and salinity observations were taken. Numerous experiments were 

 also made with cod-ends of difierent mesh to ascertain the relation 

 between the size of the mesh and the sizes of the herrings and other 

 fishes captured. During the chief commercial herring- trawling season 

 the " Goldseeker " was engaged on the grounds in the neighbourhood of 

 the Dogger Bank, where the commercial vessels were principally 

 working, and the trawling operations were carried on under the super- 

 intendence of an expert herring- trawling skipper, whose services were 

 obtained for the purpose. 



As above stated, a full report giving the results of the enquiry in 

 its various branches is now in course of completion. 



Observations on the Eggs and Larvce of Food Fishes. 



In addition to the information acquired by ascertaining the con- 

 dition of the reproductive organs of a large proportion of the fishes 

 taken in the trawl-net, numerous collections were made by special 

 nets of the floating eggs and the young of the food fishes at different 

 seasons and at various localities. By this means information is 

 obtained as to the spawning season and spawning regions of the 

 fishes, and as to the distribution of the eggs. Observations of this 

 kind were made all along the East Coast and eastwards at intervals 

 as far as the Great Fisher Bank, as well as in the Moray Firth and 

 the Firth of Forth. One region in which it is specially desirable to 

 make a series of such observations during the earlier part of the year 

 in particular, when most of the food fishes spawn, is that between the 

 Moray Firth and the Shetland Islands. It is in this area that the great 

 body of Atlantic water enters the North Sea, carrying with it supplies of 

 the eggs and young of the food-fishes, as well as the plankton, or 

 floating organisms so important as the food of fishes. 



Change in Membership. 



Mr. T. B. Morison, K.C., having in March last resigned his com- 

 mission as Sheriff of Fife and Kinross, in consequence resigned his 

 position as Deputy-Chairman and Legal Member of the Board, and 

 3 



